This invention relates generally to fabrication of metallic, hollow golf club heads (woods). More particularly, it concerns the support of metallic sole plates on head shells as during their interconnection.
During fabrication of golf club metal heads (woods) of hollow configuration, an opening is formed in the bottom wall of the head. That opening is typically covered or filled by brazing attachment of a sole plate to the rim bounding the opening. The openig results from the lost wax process of fabrication, wherein metal core parts are removed from the wax shell via the precursor opening in that shell.
It has been proposed to support the metal sole plate in the opening formed by the metal shell, as by employing tabs on the sole plate, whereby the weld connection can then be accomplished; however, such tabs allow leakage of braze or weld melt into the interior of the hollow metal head. In addition, the melt tends to flow outwardly of the opening so that a smooth line of demarcation between the sole plate and head is difficult to establish upon grinding, and undesirable grinding of sole plate and head metal frequently occurs. Also, such tabs formed on the precursor wax "sole plate" are disadvantageously subject to unwanted break-off due to their weak support on that plate.